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90 Greatest Pride Quotes To Navigate Its Complex Terrain

90 Greatest Pride Quotes To Navigate Its Complex Terrain

Let’s get real about pride — the highs that uplift, the not-so-great moments that challenge, and everything in between, in an awesome collection of pride quotes!

10 Best Pride Quotes

1. “Pride is founded not on the sense of happiness, but on the sense of power.” — William Hazlitt

2. “Pride, the first peer and president of Hell.” — Daniel Defoe

3. “Pride must die in you, or nothing of heaven can live in you.” ― Andrew Murray

4. “When pride and presumption walk before, shame and loss follow very closely.” — Louis XI of France

5. “Pride is pleasure arising from a man’s thinking too highly of himself.” — Baruch Spinoza

6. “It’s a fine thing to rise above pride, but you must have pride in order to do so.” — Georges Bernanos

Portrait of a beautiful young woman representing the best pride quote

7. “The pride of the body is a barrier against the gifts that purify the soul.” — George Eliot

8. “No man has ever had a point of pride that was not injurious to him.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

9. “Pride is an admission of weakness; it secretly fears all competition and dreads all rivals.” — Fulton J. Sheen

10. “Humility and pride will forever battle whenever or wherever love is concerned.” ― Jeremy Aldana

Inspiring Quotes About Pride

1. “If you want to be proud of yourself, then do things in which you can take pride.” — Karen Horney

A dark image of a woman's face representing an inspiring pride quote

2. “Few people can walk in your shoes. You are the only one that knows your obstacles, challenges, and struggles. Be proud of yourself and the progress you’ve made.” — Edmond Mbiaka

3. “Every woman that finally figured out her worth has picked up her suitcases of pride and boarded a flight to freedom, which landed in the valley of change.” — Shannon L. Alder

4. “Be proud of your scars. They remind you that you have the will to live.” — Paulo Coelho

5. “I’ve always been someone who believes in being real and embraces my imperfections with pride rather than covering it up.” — Zareen Khan

6. “Once you embrace your value, talents, and strengths, it neutralizes when others think less of you.” ― Rob Liano

7. “The preachers tell us that pride is a great sin, but the preachers are wrong. Pride makes a man, it drives him, it is the shield wall around his reputation… Men die, they said, but reputation does not die.” ― Bernard Cornwell

8. “Don’t allow the pride, ego, and insecurities of others stunt your growth.” ― Yvonne Pierre

9. “Let others pride themselves about how many pages they have written; I’d rather boast about the ones I’ve read.” ― Jorge Luis Borges

10. “You need to take pride in what God has given you.” ― Joel Osteen

11. “If you are driven by fear, anger, or pride nature will force you to compete. If you are guided by courage, awareness, tranquility, and peace nature will serve you.” ― Amit Ray

12. “If you see anything in yourself which may make you proud, look a little further, and you will find enough to make you humble.” — Wellins Calcott

13. “If you can cope the pride when winning, then you can confront despair when lose.” ― Toba Beta

14. “Pride may be allowed to this or that degree, else a man cannot keep up his dignity.” — John Selden

15. “I like to see a man proud of the place in which he lives. I like to see a man live so that his place will be proud of him.” — Abraham Lincoln

16. “It takes strength to be proud of yourself and to accept yourself when you know that you have something out of the ordinary about you.” ― Abigail Tarttelin

17. “Nothing is ever wrong. We learn from every step we take. Whatever you did today was the way it was meant to be. Be proud of you.” — Oprah Winfrey

18.  “Be happy being you. Don’t try to be anyone else. You’re unique, so be loud and proud.” — Apollo Ohno

19. “Pride helps us, and pride is not a bad thing when it only urges us to hide our own hurts — not to hurt others.” ― George Eliot

20. “Success is a long process. If you’re making steady progress on the path to your goals, you have already succeeded. Feel proud of that.” — Hal Elrod

See also: 220 Best Proverbs About Success To Give You Inspiration

Wise Pride Quotes

1. “Yes, vanity is a weakness indeed. But pride – where there is a real superiority of mind, pride will be always under good regulation.” ― Jane Austen

2. “Charity feeds the poor, so does pride; charity builds a hospital, so does pride. In this they differ: charity gives her glory to God; pride takes her glory from man.” — Francis Quarles

3. “The greatest pride, or the greatest despondency, is the greatest ignorance of one’s self.” — Baruch Spinoza

4. “Your pride for your country should not come after your country becomes great; your country becomes great because of your pride in it.” ― Idowu Koyenikan

5. “The proud person always wants to do the right thing, the great thing. But because he wants to do it in his own strength, he is fighting not with man, but with God.” ― Soren A. Kierkegaard

6. “It is better to lose your pride with someone you love rather than to lose that someone you love with your useless pride.” ― John Ruskin

7. “Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man… It is the comparison that makes you proud: the pleasure of being above the rest. Once the element of competition is gone, pride is gone.” ― C.S. Lewis

8. “The pride of aiming at more knowledge, and pretending to more perfection, is the cause of Man’s error and misery.” — Alexander Pope

9. “The pride of youth is in strength and beauty, the pride of old age is in discretion.” — Democritus

10. “With too much pride a man cannot learn a thing. In and of itself, learning teaches you how foolish you are.” ― Criss Jami

11. “Confidence turns into pride only when you are in denial of your mistakes.” — Criss Jami

A close-up of a young woman's face

12. “Generosity is giving more than you can, and pride is taking less than you need.” ― Khalil Gibran

13. “With pride, there are many curses. With humility, there come many blessings.” — Ezra Taft Benson

14. “It was pride that changed angels into devils; it is humility that makes men as angels.” — Augustine of Hippo

15. “Better look idiot and learn, than be proud and stagnant.” ― Abhijit Naskar

16. “When dealing with people, remember you are not dealing with creatures of logic, but with creatures bristling with prejudice and motivated by pride and vanity.” ― Dale Carnegie

17. “Vanity and pride are different things, though the words are often used synonymously. A person may be proud without being vain. Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves, vanity to what we would have others think of us.” ― Jane Austen

18. “Pride and curiosity are the two scourges of our souls. The latter prompts us to poke our noses into everything, and the former forbids us to leave anything unresolved and undecided.” ― Michel de Montaigne

19. “Pity is the most agreeable feeling among those who have little pride and no prospects of great conquests.” ― Friedrich Nietzsche

20. “Pride is holding your head up when everyone around you has theirs bowed. Courage is what makes you do it.” ― Bryce Courtenay

See also: 210 Best Quotes About Courage To Unleash Your Inner Hero

Motivational Quotes On Pride

1. “Don’t be ashamed of anything you’ve gone through. Be proud of everything you’ve overcome!” — Phil McGraw

2. “If you want to feel proud of yourself, then do good. Take action that will make you proud. And if you really want to feel proud, then do something to help someone else.” — Oseola McCarty

3. “Always work hard, be honest, and be proud of who you are.” — Patricia Velasquez

4. “Don’t spend all of your time trying to FIND yourself. Spend your time CREATING yourself into a person that you’ll be proud of.” — Sonya Parker

5. “Be proud of your choices, not your gifts.” — Jeff Bezos

6. “I always take pride in the fact that nobody can mess with me, and I never let anybody mess with me my entire life.” — Dean Ambrose

7. “Pride comes before the fall. Stay humble.” — Unknown

8. “I pride myself on being a good friend, and all my friends can attest to that.” — Kyle Richards

9. “When you feel nervous, recall your pride.” ― Toba Beta

10. “A proud man is always looking down on things and people; and, of course, as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you.” ― C.S. Lewis

11. “Dear me, one day I’ll make you proud.” ― Charlotte Eriksson

12. “Fear cannot capture us, criticism cannot harm us, and pride cannot make us fall.” ― Donna Goddard

13. “Embrace the glorious mess that you are.” — Elizabeth Gilbert

14. “For what it’s worth: it’s never too late to be whoever you want to be. I hope you live a life you’re proud of, and if you find you’re not, I hope you have the strength to start over again.” ― F. Scott Fitzgerald

15. “Being interesting isn’t important. But being happy is. As well as being a person you’re proud of.” ― Holly Bourne

16. “If you do something awesome, you should be proud of yourself.” — Damon Lindelof

17. “Good for you and be proud of yourself because you have your priorities in order. Be proud of yourself if you are responsible, reliable, persistent, and take your job and education seriously.” ― Ana Monnar

18. “If you want to protect your pride, you don’t need people to like you!” ― Wataru Watari

19. “Don’t ever be afraid to promote yourself and your work. Be proud of your creations and emit that bountiful type of energy to the world. You will ultimately get it back in different forms.” ― Robin S. Baker

20. “Be proud and stand tall; Ain’t no one living your life.” ― Wazim Shaw

Thought-Provoking Pride Quotes

1. “Humility is nothing but truth, and pride is nothing but lying.” ― St. Vincent de Paul

2. “Through pride we are ever deceiving ourselves. But deep down below the surface of the average conscience a still, small voice says to us, something is out of tune. ” ― Carl Gustav Jung

3. “We are rarely proud when we are alone.” ― Voltaire

4. “One sticks to an opinion because he prides himself on having come to it on his own, and another because he has taken great pains to learn it and is proud to have grasped it: and so both do so out of vanity.” ― Friedrich Nietzsche

5. “Pride costs us more than hunger, thirst, and cold.” ― Thomas Jefferson

6. “Proud people breed sad sorrows for themselves.” ― Emily Brontë

7. “All men make mistakes, but a good man yields when he knows his course is wrong, and repairs the evil. The only crime is pride.” ― Sophocles

8. “Pride is not the opposite of shame, but its source. True humility is the only antidote to shame.” ― General Iroh

9. “Humility, the place of entire dependence on God, is the first duty and the highest virtue of the creature, and the root of every virtue. And so pride, or the loss of this humility, is the root of every sin and evil.” ― Andrew Murray

10. “The hated man is the result of his hater’s pride rather than his hater’s conscience.” ― Criss Jami

11. “What you call pride, I call courage.” ― Jeff Zentner

12. “Leave your pride, ego, and narcissism somewhere else. Reactions from those parts of you will reinforce your children’s most primitive fears.” ― Dr. Henry Cloud & Dr. John Townsend

13. “[Pride and power] are the same except that pride leaves the lights on and power can do it in the dark.” ― Katherine Dunn

14. “Pride slays thanksgiving … A prideful man is seldom a grateful man, for he never thinks he gets as much as he deserves.” ― Henry Ward Beecher

15. “Pride only helps us to be generous; it never makes us so, any more than vanity makes us witty.” ― George Eliot

16. “Pride is the mother of arrogance.” ― Toba Beta

17. “Maybe what you need is less pride and more courage. Pride is the nickname we give fear.” ― André Aciman

18. “He that is proud eats up himself: pride is his own glass, his own trumpet, his own chronicle.” ― William Shakespeare

19. “Pride is always a better lever against the nobility than reason.” ― Patrick Rothfuss

20. “The less worth of a man, the greater his pride.” ― Yukito Kishiro

Wrapping It Up

I’ve gathered these pride quotes from all over the web to capture the different sides of this concept. 

Let them inspire you to always value and take pride in who you are, but also to keep an eye out for when pride needs a reality check!

90 Greatest Pride Quotes To Navigate Its Complex Terrain